Pelican Pilgrimage

Yesterday while on a bike ride for the first time in my life I had the fortune and pleasure of seeing hundreds and hundreds of American White Pelicans flying north along the Mississippi River at La Crosse. Most of them were flying very high and out of camera range but one group was flying lower for some reason and I was able to snap a photo (see above) of the lead birds in the group as they passed overhead. Out of curiosity I checked the Web when I got home to learn about the migration habits of American White Pelicans and discovered they spent the winter along the Gulf of Mexico from Mexico to Florida. In March they begin to head north along the Mississippi - usually spending three weeks in the Illinois area before continuing north in late March or early April to their nesting grounds in northern Wisconsin/Minnesota and southern Canada. Cool. I never knew that.